Congressional Republicans on Wednesday stated that they had requested NPR’s new chief government, Katherine Maher, to handle accusations of political bias within the radio community’s journalism throughout a listening to subsequent week.
A trio of Republican lawmakers — Representatives Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, Bob Latta of Ohio and Morgan Griffith of Virginia — despatched a six-page letter to Ms. Maher that notified her of an investigation into the community and requested her look on Could 8.
“As a taxpayer funded, public radio group, NPR ought to concentrate on honest and goal information reporting that each considers and displays the views of the bigger U.S. inhabitants and never only a area of interest viewers,” the letter stated.
The lawmakers, all members of the Home Power and Commerce Committee, stated the listening to can be held by the panel’s oversight subcommittee.
NPR declined to remark, however Ms. Maher could have a scheduling battle. In response to an agenda of NPR’s upcoming board of administrators assembly, Ms. Maher is scheduled to convene with NPR’s board all day on Could 8.
NPR has been scrutinized by conservatives in latest weeks after the publication of an essay by Uri Berliner, a former senior editor on the community, who stated that the community had allowed progressive politics to have an effect on its protection of main tales. Mr. Berliner, who has since resigned, cited the community’s protection of the Covid-19 pandemic, the investigation into Russian interference within the 2016 election and Hunter Biden’s laptop computer as examples of bias.
Mr. Berliner’s essay has generated vociferous pushback from many workers at NPR, who say that a lot of his factors have been factually inaccurate. Tony Cavin, NPR’s managing editor for requirements, has stated the community’s protection of Hunter Biden’s laptop computer, the Covid-19 pandemic and the investigation into Russian collusion by Robert S. Mueller III, a particular counsel, hewed carefully to accountable protection by different mainstream information organizations.
Ms. Maher, who joined the community this yr, has personally been focused by conservative activists who’ve combed by way of her social media historical past and resurfaced posts that promoted progressive causes and critiqued former President Donald J. Trump. In a single put up, from 2018, Ms. Maher known as Mr. Trump a “racist”; one other from 2020 confirmed her sporting a hat with the emblem of the Biden marketing campaign.
NPR has stated that Ms. Maher, the previous chief government of Wikimedia, wasn’t working in information on the time she made the posts, and added that she was exercising her First Modification proper to free expression.
Through the years, Republicans have often threatened to drag authorities cash from NPR, which comes from the taxpayer-funded Company for Public Broadcasting. However these threats haven’t resulted in any important funding discount for the group, which generates a lot of its income by promoting radio programming to its member stations throughout the US.
